I’ve been meaning to write about this for a week now. My students are working on personal narratives, ones in which they need to analyze the events and support a thesis. Additionally, they need to think about it rhetorically: who is their audience (beyond me; I know, a typical composition contrivance) and what is their purpose. My students were struggling a lot with audience (why can’t you just tell a story to tell a story) and coming up with a thesis that their narratives could support.

So, I brought in Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car”:

We had a great discussion about the narrative in the song, who it’s addressed to, how the narrator analyzes the events (though not so explicitly), and what conclusions she draws (her thesis).

From my notes on the song before class:

Narrative: The speaker’s dad is an alcoholic and mother has left the family, so the narrator gets a job. But she’d rather leave town and go to the city with this guy who has a fast car â€” because being with him in the fast car makes her feel like she is someone and belongs. However, once in the city with this guy and children, she finds that she’s supporting the guy and making all the money (just like when she lived with her father).

Analysis: The guy’s got a fast car, but leaving a place with a fast car doesn’t actually mean change. Change is something more than the superficial leaving of a place. The car doesn’t represent the hope she thought it did.

Audience: The speaker is talking to the guy (the “you”).

Thesis (paraphrased): “Your fast car didn’t actually deliver life and change â€” in fact, it doesn’t represent the hope I once thought it did.” And she tells the guy to leave.

Exigence: Her husband is a drunken deadbeat and she wants him out.

Some students brought up that this song is about being someone, and that some symbol or other person can’t do it for you â€”Â that you become someone by being yourself. It’s a bit self-reliant, but I think it’s also a good reading of the song.